Lincolnshire has taken in 60 child refugees, says council leader

Lincolnshire has resettled almost 60 refugee children who have been discovered in the county, said Lincolnshire County Council Leader Martin Hill, but has still to receive 200 refugees.

Twelve months after harrowing images of three-year-old Alan Kurdi sparked a wave of outrage and compassion across Europe, the county has yet to fulfil its commitment to house refugees from Syrian camps.

As reported previously, it was announced a year ago that Lincolnshire would offer sanctuary to 200 refugees fleeing Syria over five years after David Cameron agreed to take in 20,000 people.

In total, 58 unaccompanied children have been taken into care in the county, many of whom have arrived on the back of lorries, Councillor Hill explained.

Martin Hill told The Lincolnite in a live streamed web chat on Friday, September 2: “At the moment there are probably about 1,000 unaccompanied children in Kent. There are also [refugees] David Cameron said he’d resettle which is 20,000 by 2020 and then there’s the families that come over as well.

“In Lincolnshire we’ve committed, subject to the funding being in place (which it mostly is), that we will take our fare share from the Syrian camps. That will be 200 for Lincolnshire.

“We’re also taking a lot of the children who appear out of nowhere, not just the ones in Kent.

“They’ll often be on a lorry, like this week in Cranwell or on the A1, and whereever they’re left stranded it’s up to that local authority to deal with.

“We’ve got just under 60 unaccompanied children from elsewhere that we are looking after.”

Martin Hill also discussed topics including Lincolnshire’s ongoing and upcoming road improvement schemes, cuts to public services and much needed NHS solutions.

Watch the live web chat in full:

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